18th – 25th August 2015: Saturn Squaring the Sun

by Sarah Varcas on 11/08/2015

Choosing to be Free

By

Sarah Varcas

Occurring as Saturn prepares to leave Scorpio mid September, this aspect ensures that we don’t miss out on one final opportunity to let go of the thoughts and feelings, activities and relationships which are holding us back. Chances are we know them well and they’ve been around for a while, strangely reassuring in their familiarity but restrictive nonetheless. Once gone, Saturn doesn’t return to Scorpio for 26 years so this is a precious opportunity to sort through our life and make one final push towards freedom from the fears, lack of confidence and heavier feelings, thoughts and memories with which we burden ourselves.

During this week life will show us where we’re replaying the past instead of living in the present to create the future. What may seem to be external frustrations or challenges in fact reflect our own mental and emotional structures which complicate rather than facilitate life. But we may have to look closely to discern just how we’re contributing to the situation. The mind can be very tricky when it comes to the ways we complicate life! A subtle nuance of thought or behaviour can make the difference between the resolution or perpetuation of a problem and just such subtleties are prevalent now. With the recent increase in activity, issues arising this week may seem like an irritating distraction from more important matters, when in fact they reveal precisely where we hinder the important matters by creating drama, strife or discord elsewhere. Once we can see this situation for what it is, we’ll be surprised at just how easily it dissolves as we commit to doing things differently.

This aspect is assisted by an alliance between Uranus, Chiron and Venus, which reminds us that timing is everything and what we can release now may have been necessary up to the very moment before we let it go. Even the painful feelings, traumatic memories, the despair or frustration, disappointment or discord has its reason and purpose. Within the deepest pain is often found the most radiant wisdom, within the most challenging situation we stumble upon a portal into the new. Whilst we can see with hindsight how difficult times have shaped us for the better, revealing more of who we truly are, it can be hard to remember that when we’re in the middle of them! Right now the heavens remind us that the ups and downs of life are simply part of the landscape of the human realm, guiding us and nudging us in the right direction. If it feels wrong it feels wrong for a reason. As we discover what that reason is, we discover a part of ourselves unacknowledged or unexpressed, ignored or denied. As we integrate that part we can more deeply embrace our wholeness no matter how paradoxical or confusing it may sometimes be. This is life: a voyage of discovery – of self and other, truth and illusion, unity and separation.

Learning to ride these waves and accept all that life brings with an open heart and a commitment to awakening enables us to encounter the most challenging and the most rewarding times with equal equanimity. Which doesn’t mean we become passive subjects of fate with no influence over our own destiny. On the contrary, that’s who we become when we allow the past to shape the present and dictate the future. Instead, through openness and a willingness to let go we become ever more vibrant forces in the world, able to act unfettered by fears born of past pain or low self-esteem born of perceived ‘failures’. When we can view ourselves through the wider lense of awakening, not the narrow lense of egoic self, we simple recognise that life does what it does and we are part of that life. What we do, therefore, matters significantly. What we express, how we commit, our attitude and approach, especially in the face of challenges, all of these form our contribution to the process of life waking up to itself, clearing away the dross, demisting the mirror and seeing the world as it truly is without rose-tinted glasses or a clouded view.

Great spiritual teachers across the ages have spoken of the world as we know it being simply an illusion. In awakening to this illusion we are set free. This alignment between the Sun and Saturn reminds us that the illusion is ours projected onto the world. We simply have to stop the projection and see life without the categorisation of good or bad, right or wrong, you and me. Even past and future must be eventually let go to arrive in a radiant present, the only place where life happens. Events we encounter this week may well frustrate us, but in doing so they remind us that the frustrations are imagined and stepping into the now without judgement or evaluation will free us from unnecessary anchors and ties. It takes practice, yes, and we have to do it repeatedly because the mind loves habits and doesn’t break them without a fight. But each time we can see our irritation as arising in response to an imagined ‘wrong’ and not as a ‘truth’ about ‘reality’, every moment we can choose a considered and reflective response rather than an emotional and instinctive reaction, we are laying the groundwork for increased peace and freedom in moments to come.

In fact freedom is what it’s all about: the freedom to embrace the unexpected twists, turns and obstacles we hadn’t accounted for, remaining focused on the present and effectively responsive, not wasting energy on frustration and anticipatory stress that gets us nowhere. With Saturn completing its final few weeks in Scorpio, we are afforded the opportunity to let go of deeply held patterns that hold us back, if we choose to take it that is, and want deeply enough to be free….

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If we tackle prevalent issues, act with integrity & commit to necessary action even if it’s tough to do, the #BlueMoon on 19th April will deliver results which reflect not only our efforts made in the coming month but also the level of integrity invested in them #astrology

A #BlueMoon is a 2nd bite at the cherry of the #fullmoon a month earlier & allows for more significant outcomes How we use the intervening month is critical to how it impacts our life If we avoid doing what we know must be done it will deliver the consequences of our avoidance

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March 2019 is an exciting month astrologically as Uranus enters Taurus. The following articles - including one about this important shift - are currently available on my web site and may be of interest in the coming months:

'This is the first of five full moons in the first degree of their zodiac sign, so between now and the end of March 2019 new beginnings will be hidden within endings, completion and loss. It may augur a parting of ways as opinions differ and paths diverge. In struggling to retain our connection with a familiar face, we may overlook the freedom of new directions for everyone.......With Venus having recently turned direct in Libra many relationships are undergoing a process of recalibration and this full moon supports those who know that times are changing and things simply cannot remain as they were.'